Description
This perfectly tender grilled lemon salmon is simple, healthy, and a stress-free way to impress your dinner guests. Finish tableside by pouring the garden fresh puree around your chef-d’oeuvre of dark greens, nutty wild rice pancakes and tantalizing pea tendril salad.
Scale
Ingredients
- 2 wild caught salmon fillets, about 4–6 ounces each, room temp, skin removed and reserved for Crispy Salmon Skin Salad
- olive oil, as needed
- salt and freshly ground pepper, season as you go
- zest of 1 lemon, reserve a 1/3 for Pea Tendril Salad
- 3 cups loosely packed spicy greens
For the Wild Rice Pancakes
- 3–4 green onions, bottom white parts thinly sliced, green tops thinly sliced on a bias
- 1 farm fresh egg
- 2 tablespoon whole milk
- 2 tablespoon all purpose flour, (substitute rice flour for Gluten-free option)
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 ½ cups cooked wild rice
- olive oil, as needed
- 2 tablespoon toasted pumpkin seeds
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
For the Garden Puree
- 3 cups sorrel
- 2–3 cups loosely packed arugula
- 10–15 basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, used to richen it up, more as needed
- salt and freshly ground pepper
- 1 ½ cups fish stock, warmed, substitute with vegetable stock or water
For the Pea Tendril Salad
- big handful of pea tendrils
- reserved zest of lemon
- 1 chive blossom, chopped
- olive oil, as needed
- 1 teaspoon vinegar, (we used O champagne citrus vinegar)
- juice of lemon, just a squeeze
- salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Mark the salmon: Preheat grill and a cast iron skillet to medium-high. Coat both sides of the salmon fillets with olive oil, salt and pepper and lemon zest. Mark the salmon on both sides, grilling it to rare or medium rare, 2-3 minutes a side. Remove from heat, cover and set aside.
- Wild rice pancakes: In a bowl combine green onion bottoms, egg, milk, flour, a touch of salt and pepper. Whisk together until slightly thickened, careful not to over mix. With a spatula fold in green onion tops, wild rice, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and a touch of olive oil.
- Coat the hot skillet with olive oil and spoon the wild rice mixture into piles without overcrowding you pan. If you don’t hear a sizzle sound right away the pan is not hot enough, wait. Flip cakes once you get a brown color forming around the outsides and when the cakes move as a whole when pushed. Cook 5-6 minutes total. Remove from heat and leave in the cakes in the pan to stay warm
- Garden Puree: In a blender add sorrel, arugula, basil, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Pour in the warm fish stock and blend until a thick smooth puree. Add stock as needed.
- Pea Tendril Salad: In a bowl mix together pea tendrils, reserved lemon zest, chive blossom and olive oil. Toss to combine and coat with the olive oil to protect the greens before you add a squeeze of lemon juice and splash of vinegar. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper, toss once more to combine.
- Wilt the spicy greens: Preheat a second pan and return salmon to the grill to warm up. Add a touch of olive oil to the hot pan followed by the spicy greens, toss to wilt evenly, season with salt and pepper.
- Plate the dish: starting with a pile of the wilted spicy greens in the center, lean wild rice pancakes around greens, top with the salmon fillets then pour puree around the outside. Finish with the pea tendril salad stacked on top.
Notes
- Marking the salmon ahead of time helps to avoid overcooking and allows you to prep all other components of the dish for perfect timing. Once everything else is complete you simply warm salmon back up and serve immediately.
- Wild rice pancake are amazing on their own; or serve as a starter with smoked salmon; or alongside fried eggs in the morning.
- Pea tendrils are the young leaves and stems of a peaplant and are the most tender during the beginning of the growing season. The later season more mature shoots are often slightly fibrous and often require a bit of pruning and light cooking.
- Category: entrée
- Method: grill
Keywords: salmon, grilled lemon salmon,